Infotainment systems are increasingly impacting consumer satisfaction with vehicles. The 2024 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study pointed out infotainment technologies as significant sources of driver dissatisfaction. Infotainment problems are becoming a significant portion of reported issues, underscoring the complexities of modern in-car technology. They are said to be the main reason for General Motors’ stop-sale order on the Chevrolet Blazer EV, according to The Verge.
Profilence and RemotiveLabs have launched an industry-first holistic testing collaboration that they say has the potential to cure this “industry plague” head-on. They have partnered to efficiently recreate real-world user interactions and integrate the vehicle signals in infotainment for a QA (quality analysis) solution to enable continuous stability and performance analysis.
Profilence says it is the leader in advanced software quality assurance solutions for automotive, medical, and smart devices. Based in Finland, its patented QA Suite and expertise have accelerated the development of dozens of products and prevented critical software issues from reaching end users.
RemotiveLabs empowers automotive engineers by providing modern and flexible tooling for software development. The Malmö-based startup was founded in Sweden in 2020 and has been recognized as a change-maker in software-defined vehicles with its open and developer-centric platform.
Their collaboration is aimed at eliminating the gap between accurately recreating the complex interplay between user behavior and vehicle signals, enabling detailed analysis and faster, more efficient development cycles. The partnership offers OEMs and Tier Ones a holistic view of infotainment system performance and quality in a laboratory environment when only hardware test rigs exist, well before vehicles are available for fleet trials.
The new type of quality analytics addresses the challenge of finding the “tricky types” of issues that normally only occur in long-term use.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in infotainment testing,” said Tero Aaltonen, Chief Business Development Officer of Profilence. “Bringing in RemotiveLabs capabilities into our solution will become the new benchmark for quality analysis in automotive infotainment.”
RemotiveLabs and Profilence are aiming to empower manufacturers to ensure expected quality, user experience, and long-term stability.
“Our partnership with Profilence is a game-changer for testing with data from real vehicles,” added RemotiveLabs CTO, Aleksandar Filipov. “We make it easy to record, share, and use real drive cycles, which are fed into Profilence’s QA Suite, enabling fully automated end-to-end testing at scale.”
The solution was first demoed at the COVESA (Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance) All Members Meeting in Gothenburg last week with P3 and its Android Automotive OS-based SPARQ OS platform.
“With this integration, we’re showing how OEMs can be sure their IVI is built on superior-quality technology, and bring their products to market faster, with confidence,” said Marius Mailat, CTO & Managing Director of P3 Digital Services.
At CES 2023, Profilence announced the P3 partnership to accelerate the development and quality assurance processes of infotainment systems based on the Android Automotive OS, which the automotive segment is increasingly adopting as a cockpit solution. The extension of the QA Suite aids features implemented by the SPARQ platform such as navigation, media player, and app store, as well as additional apps provided by P3’s ecosystem partners including EV charging and parking assistance.
Profilence says that the RemotiveLabs tech partnership takes its capabilities to the next level as it automates testing and enables quality analytics of actual in-vehicle experiences—combined with vehicle behavior. It adds to the company’s recent announcement leveraging its expertise to streamline the integration process for OEMs seeking to incorporate TomTom‘s Digital Cockpit.
“Supporting TomTom Digital Cockpit is a notable milestone in our mission to ensure infotainment systems’ long-term stability and performance,” said Aaltonen.
TomTom Digital Cockpit licensees now have the option to start analyzing the quality of their integrated infotainment systems, as the needed adaptations have been built into the Profilence QA Suite proactively.
“Utilizing the quality assurance solution provided by Profilence empowers our engineers to concentrate on what truly matters: delivering state-of-the-art IVI software with robust stability and performance,” said Daan Duurkoop, VP of Product Management for TomTom Digital Cockpit. “This indispensable solution is a daily asset in our commitment to uphold the superior quality of our software.”